So I was watching some Alan Watts videos below earlier today and he discussed an interesting concept for a replacement tax system. As our population keeps expanding and we keep creating more and more "value" by producing goods etc the government injects money into society via inflation so that there is an equal amount of "money" as there is value to be traded (correct me if I'm wrong, I'm an engineer and have not studied economics/finance even at highschool level)
He suggested why doesn't the government just skim off the top of this money they create and use that for all tax payer services eg medicare, the doll etc and then we just do not pay any tax at all?
What would be the result of doing this? Surely it would be simpler and avoid all the complex tax rules and laws, the people who work for the ATO could then simply work for calculating how much money to take off the top based on the economys current performance.
Discuss.
edit: Also watch these videos, he is not an economist but he raises some very interesting points regarding what the whole point of money is. One of the most interesting points he raises is automating factories is meant to mean we don't work as hard, have more spare time and life is easier. However when you automate everything jobs are lost and these people now have to get government handouts to be able to afford the automated produce, if they don't the automation actually results in us being worse off as no one can use the automated products.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiNODsOnvYA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-07iMa7-c8g
He suggested why doesn't the government just skim off the top of this money they create and use that for all tax payer services eg medicare, the doll etc and then we just do not pay any tax at all?
What would be the result of doing this? Surely it would be simpler and avoid all the complex tax rules and laws, the people who work for the ATO could then simply work for calculating how much money to take off the top based on the economys current performance.
Discuss.
edit: Also watch these videos, he is not an economist but he raises some very interesting points regarding what the whole point of money is. One of the most interesting points he raises is automating factories is meant to mean we don't work as hard, have more spare time and life is easier. However when you automate everything jobs are lost and these people now have to get government handouts to be able to afford the automated produce, if they don't the automation actually results in us being worse off as no one can use the automated products.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiNODsOnvYA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-07iMa7-c8g